The Ducks continue a five-game southeastern road trip tonight in the Tar Heel State, facing off with the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena.
PUCK DROP: 4 P.M. PT | TV: BALLY SPORTS SOCAL | DUCKS STREAM | NHL GAMECENTER
Anaheim moves to the second game of its trip looking to build on a 5-3 victory Tuesday night in Nashville, courtesy of a dominant first-period performance. The Ducks led 4-0 after 20 minutes that night, snapping a five-game losing skid and a five-game stretch of scoring two-or-fewer goals.
"I thought we were playing simple," said defenseman Jackson LaCombe, who had two assists on his 23rd birthday. "I think we were moving pucks up quickly and just moving forward with the puck. It was really good by us."
"We got off to a good start with the early penalty kill and the [Ryan Strome] breakaway," Adam Henrique said. "Then we kind of went from there. I thought we were playing a structured game, which was big for us. We were just kind of getting into the rhythm and stuck with it."
The win, Anaheim's second in Nashville this season, also included a pair of milestone moments for two Ducks forwards - Troy Terry's 200th career NHL point and Adam Henrique's 500th.
"It's pretty special," Henrique said postgame. "I've certainly come a long way and played with a lot of great teammates over my career so far. I certainly can't do it without those guys, and my family and friends as well. The support along the way away from the rink has been big throughout my career."
Anaheim's lineup will again require some tweaks tonight as the club lost both Trevor Zegras and Pavel Mintyukov to injuries in Nashville and neither will play tonight. The Ducks recalled veteran defenseman Robert Hagg from AHL San Diego on Tuesday and also claimed 25-year-old Gustav Lindstrom on waivers from Montreal yesterday.
"He'll be out a while," Cronin said of Zegras Tuesday night.
"It's a bad omen when he got hurt, but we fought through it. When you have that happen, your lines are never going to be the same [for the rest of the game] so you have to stay focused. We did a good job with that."
The Ducks now stand at 14-25-1 on the season, but with a much better 8-9-0 mark on the road.
"We're looking at how we're playing with structure and how competitive we are to get pucks back so that structure actually works out with scoring chances," Cronin said. "Nashville was a little bit flat and we jumped on loose pucks, starting with faceoffs, and we got some scoring chances. We built off that."
For a second straight win, Anaheim will need to take down a Carolina team again contending for a Metropolitan Division title. The Canes have earned points in nine of their last 10 games, but had their five-game winning streak halted Saturday in a shootout loss to the Blues.
"The bounces didn't go our way tonight, but overall I thought it was a solid game," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour told NHL.com's Kurt Dusterberg. "Especially coming off a tough game [the night before] too. I liked it."
Carolina (22-13-5, 49 points) sits second in the division, five points back of the first-place New York Rangers.
